Many librarians are experiencing a shift in direction away from a focus on collections and towards a heightened focus on the services that they offer to patrons. This change goes beyond the implementation of patron-driven acquisitions and includes a realignment of priorities in which the users’ needs and experiences are taken into consideration in all areas of the library, including reference services, information literacy, digital resource management, marketing and more. Technology has enabled many of the changes that librarians are facing and has facilitated their ability to meet and anticipate users’ needs. The Patron Driven Library is an excellent guide to how librarians can incorporate users’ needs and expectations into their planning.
The book is organized into two sections. The first provides some historical context for the current library environment and examines the effect that technology has had on library patrons. In Chapter 1, the author describes the many challenges that libraries face, including decreasing budgets, rising serial costs and the increasingly consolidated publishing world. In Chapter 2, Allison discusses the ubiquity of technology use among members of the millennial generation and how that affects their expectations of library services.
In the second section, Allison addresses the change in libraries from an emphasis on collections to an emphasis on services. She states that librarians should put users’ needs ahead of organizational needs and spotlights a number of areas in which this change in focus should be applied. These include information literacy, collaborative collection development, advocacy and marketing. Allison devotes a chapter to the concept of the “extensible library”, which she defines as “a library that adapts to the changing needs of users and cooperates with other libraries in the development of services and collections”. In Chapter 11, she describes “the new professional librarian” who will be a digital native and who will need to pay attention to changes in technology, the development of social networks, assessment and fundraising. Finally, the author makes some predictions about the future of libraries, stating that there will need to be more emphasis on accommodating the needs of disabled patrons and the provision of spaces for learning commons, for play and for special collections.
The Patron Driven Library is a thoughtful exploration of the change in library culture from an emphasis on collections to one on services. The author makes a convincing argument in support of putting patrons’ needs first. My only criticism is that there were numerous typographical errors throughout the book, and it would have benefited from a more careful editing process. This book would be a strong addition to all professional libraries.
